Financial Planner and CFP

Creative Money is an advice-only model for financial planning and we're seeking a planner who might enjoy joining us in our non-traditional approach.

Ideally, you have passed the CFP exam and are focused on acquiring the experiential hours. We need a detail-oriented problem solver to be a proactive team member, but you will also be trained on the Creative Money method. We would take time to train you on our systems before moving to your own client meeting schedule. You would also be taking on servicing on existing plans until your bookings are sufficient to keep you busy.

You would need to pass the series 65 state exam if you have not already or if you have passed your experiential hours and can use your designation, that will bypass the exam requirement.

You'll perform analyses and meet with other team members to work on cases. You will also meet with clients in person and virtually. You must be able to relate to and connect with a variety of demographics. You must be able to understand existing plans and support implementation and explanations for clients.

To that point, some meetings will most likely fall outside of normal business hours---one weekly 6 pm weeknight appointment is typical, but flexible hours otherwise as long as you’re prepared when you need to be. Ultimately, you will have control over your schedule within some company needs, policies and parameters.

Please note: This is NOT a wealth management firm, and we are not looking for someone who aspires to asset management. There are similarities in terms of doing comprehensive financial planning, making specific investment recommendations, and helping clients make good money decisions, but the focus on the work is more holistic and collaborative -- not technical financial markets, and not product sales.

Also, you will not be expected to acquire your own leads, but you will need to be comfortable holding some prospect calls with all the leads we get. You will need to be able to establish rapport and credibility so that potential clients are interested in booking with you (although we do not subscribe to hard sell methods). Aside from holding prospect calls, you will not be expected to perform any other marketing duties (unless you want to).

This person will be managing nuance – of processes, of client data, of communication and evolving needs. Everybody always says, paying attention to detail is important, but more significant: does your manager need to follow up with you to see if you completed all your responsibilities, or do you just slay it all without getting checked on? This quality is ESSENTIAL. I am looking for people who can spot the problem before I do, respond to clients and who perform their own research and quality assurance checks.

Starting out, we need to train you on systems – we’ll pay you an hourly rate during this period and ideally, we’d get you up to speed in about 2-3 months, while you potentially study to pass the 65 if needed. Ideally, once appointed, we could start booking plans for you about a month out. Once you’re a client-facing planner, you’ll move from hourly to paid a percentage of fees collected from your meetings completed. Additionally, you can continue the hourly element to service existing plans and support the other planners until you reach your full-time schedule which is about 10 plans per month.

We can share with you what our other planners are doing for comparison and expectations. We can easily keep you busy part time and moving beyond that would be up to your ability to manage time and add more meeting slots to your schedule. We would be thrilled if you could grow to full-time, but historically, there is a ramp up involved.

The ideal candidate will manage Microsoft Office and PC Technology, Gmail, Slack, Help Scout, Wealthbox CRM, Excel, Powerpoint, Dropbox and Google Drive seamlessly (we have instructions and videos for the less common applications). Inter-team communication will be important.

Job duties:

• Train on Creative Money workflows
• Proactively collect client data and communicate with clients
• Enter data into spreadsheets and perform case review with lead planner
• Develop presentations for client meetings based on casework
• Meet with clients to present analysis and recommendations
• Document recommendations before and after client meetings
• Document suitability and other compliance needs after meetings
• Interact and correspond with clients for plan support
• Conduct prospect calls

Desired Skills and Experience:

• Hold CFP designation or hold/acquire series 65
• Hyperdetailed and organized (I don’t want to be the one spotting the problem)
• Experience in the financial planning process
• Excellent (and responsive) social, communication and listening skills
• Self-motivated and eager to drive growth at an expanding small business
• Ability to organize and interpret data to reach sound decisions
• Ability to discuss different aspects of a client's data
• Ability to document existing systems and suggest refinement
• 4-year degree from an accredited college or university

This is an opportunity to become part of a growing company and eventually take on more responsibility and contribute to company development and direction.

Candidates will be subject to rigorous civil and criminal background checks. Compensation will be hourly while training (2-3 months), and then, as you shift to holding meetings, you'll receive a percentage of the collected fees earned on the plans you generate. You can continue the hourly element and support other planners with customer service, and eliminate that piece when you reach a full-time schedule.